Joseph Highmore
Study of the Farnese Hercules (Reversed), a Standing Male Nude, and Other Anatomical Studies
Joseph Highmore 1692–1780
Sketchbook of Figure Studies after Classical Statues
Graphite and ink on paper
Presented by Mrs Joan Highmore Blackhall and Dr R.B. McConnell 1986
[from] Works on Paper and Vellum [T04173-T04237 and T04318-T04319]
Various media and sizes
Presented by Mrs Joan Highmore Blackhall and Dr Rosemary B. McConnell 1986
Prov: By descent from the artist to the donors
Lit: C.R. Beard, 'Highmore's Scrap-Book', Connoisseur, vol.93, 1934, pp.290–7, 'Highmore's Drawings for Pine's Processions and Ceremonies', Connoisseur, vol.94, 1934, pp.9–15; Alison S. Lewis, Joseph Highmore 1692–1780, PhD thesis, Harvard 1975 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor 1980), I, pp.230–1, II, pp.650–6, 659, III, figs.263–77, 279; E. Einberg and J. Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709, Tate Gallery Collections, 11, 1988, pp.64–71, all but last six repr.; Warren Mild, Joseph Highmore of Holborn Row, Ardmore 1990
All sheets have been irregularly cut; maximum dimensions only are given. All inscriptions, unless otherwise stated, are in pen and ink, and are thought to have been written by the artist's grandson Anthony Highmore (1758–1829).
The Highmore Gift, of which this is a part, is a collection of sketches, drawings, watercolours, engravings and some family papers which descended from the artist through the late Sir Anthony Highmore King, CBE, to the donors. The papers concern mostly nineteenth-century members of the family, but include Joseph Highmore's Paris Journal of 1734, published by Elizabeth Johnston, Walpole Society, vol.42, 1970, pp.61–104. The following items have been removed for conservation reasons from a scrap-book into which they had been pasted, in no particular order, by Sir Anthony Highmore King's grandmother Anna King, together with works by Susanna Duncombe (née Highmore) and later members of the family, as well as photographs, tracings and other fragments now in the Tate Gallery Archive. Nineteen drawings by Joseph Highmore for John Pine's twenty-plate set of engravings depicting the revival of the Order of the Bath, published in 1730, were sold from the King collection to Lord Fairhaven sometime after 1934 and are on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
T04232-T04237 Sketchbook of Anatomical Studies and Studies after Classical Statues c.1710–20
Six leaves, each 354 × 230 (13 1/ × 9 1/1), in a vellum binding 365 × 235 (14 3/8 × 9 1/4)
The relatively unskilled and random nature of these studies suggest that they may have been executed by Highmore early in his career. He is known to have devoted his leisure time to the study of geometry, perspective, architecture and anatomy from books even before enrolling in the Academy of Painting in Great Queen Street in 1713, and his studies continued until he finally gave up a career in law and set up as a professional portrait painter in London in 1715.
T04236 Study of the Farnese Hercules (Reversed), a Standing Male Nude, and Other Anatomical Studies
Pencil and ink on paper
Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, London 1996
arm / arms raised(842)
body(4,960)
anatomy(50)
torso(141)
man(10,875)
nudes(2,563)
male(967)
classical myths: gods and heroes(616)
Heracles / Hercules(14)
diagrammatic(803)
'Farnese Hercules', sculpture(5)
Joseph Highmore Study of the Farnese Hercules, and Two Studies of a Foot
Joseph Highmore Three Studies of a Torso and One of a Leg. Verso: Numerous Anatomical Studies of Arms, Legs, a Torso and a Putto
Joseph Highmore Academy Study of a Male Nude
Joseph Highmore Study of the Borghese Gladiator from Behind
Joseph Highmore Two Studies of the Belvedere Torso
Joseph Highmore A Sheet of Two Studies for a Male Full-Length and 'The Good Samaritan'
Joseph Highmore Four Studies of the Belvedere Torso
Joseph Highmore Four Male Academy Studies
Joseph Highmore Study for Mercury
Joseph Highmore Four Studies for a Male Full-Length
Joseph Highmore Sketch of a Man with a Book, Opening a Door
Joseph Highmore Two Studies for a Male Full-Length
Joseph Highmore A Man, a Woman and a Dog in a Landscape
Joseph Highmore Two Studies of a Group of Four Male Figures in an Architectural Setting